New Downtown Honolulu Mural: Awesome or Awful?

By Robbie Dingeman

Published: 2014.05.06 11:38 AM

Photo: Odeelo Dayondon

Chinatown has a new, impossible-to-miss landmark: a pink and purple abstract mural on the back wall of 1121 Nuuanu Ave. Artist Aaron De La Cruz painted it in February as part of street-art festival Pow! Wow!—one of the only pieces to go up in Downtown rather than in Kakaako. Reactions have been mixed. Some people love the bright splash of color. Others, including Downtown Neighborhood Board member Lynne Matusow, think the mural clashes with the historic feel of the surrounding neighborhood, particularly when it appears on a red-brick building that dates back to 1903. “It is an eyesore,” she says.

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